Tournoi Olympique de Golf

‘Tournoi Olympique de Golf’ is the first article in our ‘Golf at the Olympiad’ trilogy and chronicles the golf events contested at the Summer Olympics of 1900 in Paris, France when golf made its Olympic debut.

In an attempt to succinctly set the scene and introduce the main golfing protagonists for the narrative which follows I have extracted and adapted a passage from the St Crispin’s Day Speech, part of Henry V: Act IV by William Shakespeare.

Old men forget: yet all shall not be forgotten,
As we will remember with advantages
What feats they did those days in Paris. Then shall their names,
Familiar in our mouths as household words,
Charles Sands and Margaret Abbott,
Walter Rutherford and David Robertson,
Albert Lambert, Pierre Deschamps and Mackenzie Turpie,
Be in our flowing cups freshly remembered.

The article begins six years before the Paris Olympics.

Hope you enjoy

Modern Olympics

Pierre de Coubertin is acknowledged as the father of the modern Olympic Games and in 1894 he established the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Later that year the IOC held their first formal conference where it was agreed that the Summer Olympics should be held every four years and that the schedule should be comprised of modern sports as opposed to ancient sports.

Coubertin proposed that the first modern Olympiad should be held in 1900 in his home city of Paris, but his proposal was opposed by the majority of IOC delegates who did not want to wait for six years. In the end, it was agreed that Athens would host the first games in 1896 and Paris would host the second games in 1900.

However, there was one colossal challenge that needed to be addressed and overcome … the Paris Exposition was also scheduled for 1900!

1900 Paris Exposition

The French Emperor Napoleon III was so impressed by the inaugural International Exposition, staged in London in 1851, that he commissioned the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855, the first of eight expositions held in Paris between 1855 and 1937.

The 1900 Paris Exposition was to run from the 14th of April to the 12th of November, celebrating and showcasing the achievements and innovations of the 19th Century and expediting growth in France at the start of the 20th Century.

Sporting Politics

Pierre de Coubertin held the belief that by holding the Olympic Games as part of the Paris Exposition there would be a heightened public awareness of the Games. Thus in 1894, he headed an IOC delegation to present their plans to Alfred Picard, the chair of the Exposition.

However, Picard privately asseverated that holding the Olympic Games at the Exposition was an “absurd anachronism!” … effectively dismissing the proposition from Coubertin and unwilling to discuss further. Undeterred, an IOC organising committee of renowned sports administrators was formed and a tentative programme of sporting events was drafted, including golf.

In November 1898, an edict was issued by the Union of the French Societies for Athletic Sports (an institution aligned to the IOC organising committee and whose Secretary-General was Pierre de Coubertin) stating that they had the sole rights to all sports to be held during the Exposition.

This statement carried no authority whatsoever and in due course, the IOC had no option but to relinquish control of the Games to Alfred Picard! As a consequence, he set up a new organising committee which published a radically different schedule of sporting events to be held from May to October.

This relatively late change in schedule resulted in much confusion with many competitors unsure whether they were participating in the Olympics or at an Exhibition … thankfully golf remained in the Olympic Programme.

The revised schedule included events that have hitherto never been contested again in the Summer Olympics such as Ballooning and Swimming Obstacle Races!

Reporting

The confusion felt by the competitors also permeated the global press coverage with diverse headlines such as:

• International Championships
• International Games
• Paris Championships
• World Championships
• Grand Prix of the Paris Exposition

In the British Newspapers, golf was described as International Golf Contests or the Paris Exhibition International Tournament with sadly no reference to the Olympic Games … and several American Newspapers ran with the headline ‘International Golf Tournaments’.

Golf de Compiègne, Compiègne

Located about 50 miles north of Paris, Compiègne Golf Club was chosen to host the Olympic golf events. The 18 hole course was opened in 1896, one of only a handful of French golf courses built in the 19th century, and as illustrated below was incorporated into the Hippodrome de Compiègne.

As a consequence, the course was very flat … though the fairways were enveloped by thick rough and the greens were ‘postage stamp’ in size. The organising committee invested much time and money improving the golf course in readiness for the Olympics and as a consequence suffered a financial loss. It is not known whether the proposed solid medals that were to be awarded in the golf programme were ever cast due to the serious budget overspend.

(Due to ever-decreasing membership and visitor numbers the Golf Club went into liquidation and sadly the course finally closed in 2017)

Golf Programme

The 1900 Olympic golf programme was comprised of the following four events:

• Tuesday 2nd October – Individual Men, played over 36 holes
• Wednesday 3rd October – Individual Women, played over 9 holes
• Wednesday 3rd October – Individual Professional, played over 36 holes
• Wednesday 3rd October – Individual Men (Handicap), played over 18 holes

Entries for the above events were primarily received from men and women who just happened to be in Paris at the time! I know that sounds preposterous but it is true … as you will read as the article unfolds.

In addition to the home nation France, only four other nations were represented in the golf … Chile, Great Britain, Switzerland and the United States.

All of the golf events were well attended and attracted society’s elite and European Royalty!

Interestingly … Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were competed for in the Individual Men and Individual Women events but not in the Individual Men (Handicap) and Individual Professional!

Individual Men

Only twelve amateur golfers contested the Individual Men’s event played over 36 holes on the 2nd October 1900.

Charles Sands (from Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York) representing the United States won with an aggregate score of 167 (82-85), narrowly pipping Great Britain’s Walter Rutherford (from Jedburgh Golf Club, Scotland) by a single shot. In third place on 175 was Great Britain’s David Robertson (from Northwood Golf Club, England).

Very little is known about the actual event other than the individual gross scores and the final result as the eyes of the golfing press was almost exclusively focused on the sixth U.S. Open played at the Chicago Golf Club, Illinois a couple of days after Charles Sands’ historic success.

(For the record … Harry Vardon, who was promoting the Vardon Flyer Ball as part of his golfing tour of the United States, won his only U.S. Open title with J.H. Taylor finishing runner up)

By comparison, much more is known about the gentlemen who finished 1-2-3, in particular, Charles Sands … so what follows are abridged biographies for Messrs Sands, Rutherford and Robertson.

Charles Sands (Pre Paris Olympics)

Charles Edward Sands was born in 1865 in New York. His father, Samuel Stevens Sands, joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1854 and for many years was head of the brokering firm S.S. Sands & Co. (at times during his adult life, Charles Sands went into partnership with his father at this company)

Charles Sands attended Columbia University where he participated in many sports including Football and Rowing but it was in Lawn Tennis where he excelled. After graduating in 1887, he joined the U.S. Tennis Tour playing in events across the United States. His best performance was in 1894 when he reached the quarter-finals of the U.S. National Championships (better known today as the US Open, one of the four Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments).

The following year Charles Sands started to play golf and joined the historic Saint Andrew’s Golf Club who along with Newport Country Club, The Country Club, Chicago Golf Club and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club established the United States Golf Association in 1894.

Only three months later and despite being a relative novice at golf, Charles Sands decided to enter the first official U.S. Amateur Championship played at Newport Country Club (the inaugural event was played at the Saint Andrew’s Grey Oaks course in October 1894). His brother, William Henry Sands, also entered and was viewed as a possible contender … unbelievably Charles Sands reached the 36 hole final where he met Charles Blair Macdonald (one of the greats of early golf in the United States and recognised as the father of golf course architecture in America). Not surprisingly, Charles Sands inexperience at this elite level saw him lose by 12&11.

Soon afterwards, Winthrop Rutherford, who had been defeated by Charles Sands in the semi-final remarked that Sands “was not much of a player” … cutting a very long story short, Winthrop Rutherford challenged Charles Sands to a match with a stake of $1,000 (an incredible sum which equates to circa. $35,000 today) … Charles Sands accepted and won the match by 3&2!

Charles Sands (Paris Olympics)

Rolling the clock forward to March 1899 and Charles Sands applied for and obtained a passport to spend an indefinite amount of time in France … and it is believed he took up residence in Paris.

Whilst in Paris, Charles Sands resumed playing championship Tennis … not only Lawn Tennis but also Jeu de Paume, nowadays known as Court Tennis or Real Tennis. In 1899 and 1900 he won the Racquette D’Or, a prestigious Real Tennis tournament played at the stunning Jardin des Tuileries, Paris … and sadly, there are now less than fifty Real Tennis courts in operation across the world.

In July 1900 the ‘Société des sports de l’île de Puteaux’ was the venue for a total of twelve Tennis Events, some of which were aligned to the Paris Olympics, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Charles Sands contested five of these events as follows:

• Men’s Singles ~ Lost in the 1st Round 6-2 6-3 to Harold Mahony of Great Britain … Mahony had been crowned Wimbledon Champion in 1896 and went on to win the Silver Medal in Paris.
• Mixed Doubles ~ With doubles partner Georgina Jones lost in the 1st Round 6-1 7-5.
• Men’s Doubles ~ With doubles partner Archibald Warden lost in the 1st Round 6-3 7-5 to the eventual silver medallists.
• Mixed Doubles (Handicap) ~ Finished T3.
• Men’s Doubles (Handicap) ~ Lost in the 1st round partnering the aforementioned Harold Mahony.

Returning to golf … after his incredible performance at the 1895 U.S. Amateur Championship, several commentators thought he would naturally improve and challenge in future tournaments and championships. Probably because his true sporting passion was Lawn Tennis and Real Tennis, Charles Sands very rarely ventured onto the golfing links again and never returned to play in another U.S. Amateur … but in October 1900 he did ‘venture out’ and won Olympic Gold!

Charles Sands (Post Paris Olympics)

After the Paris Olympics, Charles Sands returned to America to compete regionally on the U.S. Tennis Tour, winning the 1901 Senior Championship.

He returned to Paris the following year to win the Racquette D’Or for a remarkable third time. Back in the United States, Charles Sands was a dominant force within Court (Real) Tennis winning the U.S. National Court Tennis Championship in 1905 and finishing runner-up in 1906.

Charles Sands then competed at the 1908 London Olympics in Jeu De Paume … he was by now 43 years of age so it was no surprise when he was defeated in the 1st round by Eustace Miles of Great Britain, who went on to win the Silver Medal and was regarded as the greatest Real Tennis player from the start of the twentieth century until World War I.

Unfortunately, very little is known about Charles Sands after the 1908 Olympics. He died in 1945 aged 79 and in 2018 he was posthumously inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame … as one of only a handful of athletes to compete in three different sports at the Summer Olympics.

Walter Rutherford

Walter Mathers Rutherford hailed from Jedburgh on the Scottish Borders. After completing his education at Madras College in St. Andrews he moved into farming and the grain business and over the years was a passionate advocate of land reform.

He was a member of the Jedburgh Golf Club which was established in 1893, with the original 9 hole layout designed by Willie Park. Walter Rutherford held the course record at Jedburgh and was recognised as one of the best golfers in the region, winning many tournaments between 1894 and 1905.

From 1906 until his premature death in 1913, he seems to have totally disappeared from the golfing radar … rumours about Walter Rutherford vary wildly from him having serious troubles with his business to living out his last few years in London as an alcoholic.

Whatever fate befell him, Walter Rutherford never received the recognition he deserved for winning the silver medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics.

David Robertson

David Donaldson Robertson was born in Glasgow, Scotland and grew up close to Troon Golf Club (now Royal Troon) where his father, W.A. Robertson, was the third ever Captain. He became a junior member at Troon and by his early teens was playing off a handicap of 9 and by age 16 was playing off scratch.

In 1889 he enrolled at Christ’s College, Cambridge to read Law. In 1892  David Robertson became a ‘double blue’ by representing Cambridge University at golf and rugby. He was then selected to represent Scotland in the 1893 Home Nations Championship rugby match against Wales, played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh. The home team were utterly outplayed by their Welsh opponents. The Scottish selectors blamed the Scotland backs, one of whom was David Robertson, for the defeat and made six changes for the next match against the auld enemy England … David was one of the players dropped and he never represented Scotland again!

After graduating with a BA in Law, David Robertson was called to the bar in 1895 at Lincoln’s Inn, one of four inns of court in London. Despite the demands of his work as a barrister he continued to play golf with the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics being his most notable achievement.

In 1906 he was appointed to the committee of the Bar Golfing Society and would regularly play in their annual tournament and in matches against the Stock Exchange and the Press. During the First World War, he served with the Royal Navy Voluntary Reserve.

David Robertson died in 1937 aged 68.

Individual Women

The year before the Olympics, socialite Margaret Abbott travelled from Chicago to Paris to study art under the famous French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas and to study sculpture under Auguste Rodin, who is recognised as the founder of modern sculpture. She was accompanied by her mother Mary Perkins Ives Abbott, who was a writer, reviewer and novelist.

Margaret was a very keen golfer and so when she read about a 9 hole ‘International Golf Tournament’ to be played at the Compiègne Golf Club, she ‘persuaded’ her mother to also enter! Hitherto, they are the only mother and daughter to compete in the same Olympics and the same event!

In addition to Margaret and Mary Abbott, the Individual Women’s event only attracted another eight ladies of which seven represented France and Polly Whittier, a lady born in New York but who was representing Switzerland where she had lived from an early age.

Margaret Abbott posted a gross score of 47 to win the gold medal, pipping the silver medallist Polly Whittier by 2 shots. With a score of 53, Abbie Pratt (who was also an American but represented France as she was affiliated with the Dinard Golf Club) won the bronze medal … and Mary Abbott shot 65 to finish a respectable 7th.

Instead of a gold medal, Margaret was presented with a gilded porcelain bowl … which reinforced Margaret’s belief that she had not actually played in the Olympics but rather just played and won another golf tournament! For as long as she lived Margaret never realised that she had become the first American woman to win Olympic Gold!

Margaret Abbott

Margaret Ives Abbott was born in 1868 in Calcutta, India. Her father Charles died when she was very young and so her mother Mary moved the family to Boston. When Margaret was a teenager the family moved to Illinois when Mary became the Literary Editor of the Chicago Herald.

Margaret joined the Chicago Golf Club (founded and designed by Charles Blair Macdonald) where she learned to play golf under the guidance of professional Edward Frost … and from the outset, Margaret became known for her fierce competitive spirit!

Before her success at the Olympics, Margaret was better known in the United States as an illustrator and as an inventor of games for children.

In 1902 she returned to the United States and later that year she married the journalist and humorist Finley Peter Dunne, creator of Mr Dooley, a fictional Irish immigrant bartender. Margaret continually attached little importance to her triumph in the French Capital … indeed, whenever Margaret was asked about her victory she invariably said in a light-hearted manner that “her competitors turned up to play in high heels and tight skirts!”.

Margaret Abbott died in 1955 aged 76 … almost forty years later, Paula Welch, a professor at the University of Florida and something of an ‘Olympic Detective’ pieced together all the facts surrounding Margaret Abbott’s achievement at the Paris Olympics … Paula then contacted her living children to inform them that their mother had in fact been an Olympic Golf Champion!

And so … almost a century after her Olympic success, the official program for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta highlighted Margaret Abbott as the featured athlete of the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris.

Individual Professional

Professional golf returned to the Olympic Programme in 2016 after an absence of 112 years with Inbee Park of South Korea and Justin Rose of Great Britain winning gold medals in the Women’s and Men’s Individual Professional events respectively.

But back in 1900 only 2 professionals, both from France, participated in the Individual Professional event over 36 holes!

All that is known about the winner is that he was called ‘Chevalier’ who scored 170 (87+83), defeating his only rival Frank Philips by 15 shots.

Individual Men (Handicap)

Apart from David Robertson and J. Van de Wynckélé, all of the gentlemen who had contested the Individual Men’s (scratch) event over 36 holes also played in the following day’s 18 hole handicap event, for which (as stated earlier) Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were not awarded.

They were joined by another nine amateur golfers for an event that (I am sure) will never be repeated in the Summer Olympics.

It would appear that each player was allocated their current club handicap with no adjustments, which would more than likely have not been the case if today’s World Handicap System had been in operation.

Could Charles Sands, playing off a handicap of 3 add to his Olympic Gold? Could Walter Rutherford, playing off a handicap of +2 go one better? Not to be for either of them as Charles Sands finished T8 with a nett 82 and Walter Rutherford finished 13th with a nett 86.

The winner was Albert Lambert (from the Glen Echo Country Club, St. Louis) who was in Paris on a business trip. Despite finishing down the field in the previous day’s 36 hole event he shot an 83 (which was also the best gross score) for a nett 73 … more about Albert Lambert and the Glen Echo Country Club at the conclusion of this article.

Runner up was Pierre Deschamps with 108-33-75! Three years earlier, Pierre Deschamps had ‘discovered’ the game of golf when travelling in the United States and became known as the ‘Father of French Golf’ … his achievements included:

• Helping to build and design the Golf Club de Paris la Boulie.
• Organising the first French Amateur Championship.
• Co-Authoring ‘Le Golf‘ with Arnaud Massy, who in 1907 became the first non-Briton to win The Open Championship.
• Establishing the Union des Golfs de France.

Although there was no bronze medal at stake there must have been prizes for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th positions as the four players who tied for 3rd place with a nett 80 went (almost immediately) back out onto the course to contest an 18 hole playoff!

Mackenzie Turpie

One of the players involved in the playoff was Scotsman Mackenzie Turpie, who was a member at St Andrews, the home of golf.

He was a very popular and much-liked postman who decided to enter the Handicap event purely for the honour of playing at the Olympics … indeed, he used his own savings to cover all the costs of travelling to Paris, food, accommodation and the entry fee!

At that time, the definition of a ‘Gentleman’ in Britain was a person who did not work and all amateur golfers in Britain were supposed to be gentlemen! A number of the competitors complained to the organisers about playing with Mackenzie Turpie who they viewed very much as an ‘artisan’ … thankfully the complaint was not upheld as the organisers said that in Republican France, all golfers were equal whatever their standing or occupation in society and thus in their opinion he was entitled to participate as an amateur golfer.

For the record … Mackenzie Turpie finished T2 in the ‘3rd to 6th place’ playoff with George Thorne, who was also representing Great Britain … and so Mackenzie and George had to play another 18 holes to (hopefully) determine 4th and 5th at the third time of asking! Mackenzie Turpie lost out to George Thorne to eventually finish 5th overall after playing 54 holes in a single day!

Albert Lambert

To finish … Albert Bond Lambert, the winner of the Men’s Handicap event was the son of Jordan W. Lambert who founded the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company … the company that originally marketed the antiseptic mouthwash Listerine!

Albert Lambert could not contain his enthusiasm and excitement … not for his success but for his overall Olympic experience. So much so that when he returned home he began planning, with help from his father-in-law Colonel George McGrew, for golf to be included in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics!

To be continued …

Olympic Golf Marathon

I hope you have enjoyed ‘Tournoi Olympique de Golf’.

If you wish to read the second article in our ‘Golf at the Olympiad’ trilogy, chronicling the 1904 Olympic Golf Tournament in St. Louis which was a marathon festival of golf the like of which we will never see again, please click on Olympic Golf Marathon.

Acknowledgements

And finally a massive thanks to …

• Rick Powers and Karen Degnan from Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Their assistance throughout my research was awesome and helped enormously in making this article possible.
• Douglas McCreath, the Club Historian at Royal Troon Golf Club for kindly supplying a photograph of David Donaldson Robertson.